PICTURE ASSOCIATION—Volunteer Ming Fei, left, helps 7-year-old Aipeng “Nikki” St. Charles work on a lesson at the Grant Brimhall Library in Thousand Oaks on Monday. Fei works with the Thousand Oaks Chinese School, which is affiliated with the Conejo Chinese Cultural Association. The school holds classes for three hours every Saturday at Thousand Oaks High School and serves 650 students. IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers Though 7-year-old Aipeng St. Charles has spent nearly all her life in America, she still feels deeply connected to her native China.

To keep her close to her heritage, Aipeng’s parents, who adopted her when she was 1, enrolled her in language and culture classes at the Thousand Oaks Chinese School set up at Thousand Oaks High School on Saturdays.

Students there study Chinese language for two hours then switch to an elective such as Chinese chess, a two-person board game similar to ordinary chess, for another hour.

“She’s American first but also Chinese,” said Barbara St. Charles, Aipeng’s mother. “The thing that school does is make them proud of who they are. I want her to be proud that she’s Chinese.”

The school, which serves 650 students in 33 classrooms, is an affiliate of the Conejo Chinese Cultural Association (CCCA). The nonprofit charges $400 per student per year to cover the cost of classroom rent and teacher salaries. Support staff members at the school are volunteers.

This year, the Chinese school has its highest enrollment ever, said CCCA vice president Yingchun Wu.

In addition to administering classes, the cultural association organizes and sponsors educational, cultural and recreational activities for the community.

Its most important event is the annual Chinese New Year celebration at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. This year’s show will be at 7 p.m. Sat., Feb. 18 in the Fred Kavli Theatre.

Colorfully costumed dancers, singers and acrobats have entertained audiences at the theater for the past 10 years, Wu said.

Performers include about 200 students from the Chinese school and Chinese classes at Newbury Park, Westlake, Oak Park and Agoura high schools.

They begin practicing for the event in October as part of their class curriculum.

Rehearsals are every Saturday at the Boys & Girls Club on the Colina Middle School campus.

“ This is our opportunity to inform the community about Chinese culture,” Wu said. “It’s our biggest celebration of the year.”

Before moving to the Civic Arts Plaza, the performances were presented at a church in the area.

Like the event’s audience, the local Chinese population has grown. According to the 2010 Census, there are 3,794 people of Chinese descent living in Thousand Oaks, up from 2,466 in 2000.

The Chinese School had just eight students enrolled when it opened in 1975. And when the cultural association started in 1980, there were only a few Chinese families in the Conejo Valley, said Wu, who moved to the area from Las Vegas in 2000 when her husband was hired at Boeing. She eventually found a job at Baxter.

“The Chinese community has expanded so much,” she said. “It’s getting bigger and bigger.”

Wu said that many Chinese immigrants in the area attended college in the United States and came to the Conejo Valley to work at Amgen, Bank of America and other large companies. Some have been in the area for 20 years or more, said Wu, who has one child at White Oak Elementary and another at UC Berkeley.

“We like the environment here. The community is quiet and safe,” she said.

The association president knows at least 10 local families who have adopted Chinese children. She commends St. Charles’ commitment to teaching her child about her roots.

“To be successful, you have to know where you came from,” Wu said.

Aipeng, who also goes by the name Nikki, is part of a choir and a ballet troupe in Saturday’s show, which will feature 17 performances.

St. Charles, who is Native American, will watch her daughter sing in her second language.

“I know what it’s like to have your language taken away from you. I was never going to take away her language,” said the Newbury Park resident.

Tickets for the show may be purchased in advance by calling (818) 274-9552 and will also be sold at the door. Prices range from $15 to $30.

To learn more about the Conejo Chinese Cultural Association, visit www.ccca-tocs.org.

New Year celebration

The Conejo Chinese Cultural Association will sponsor its annual Chinese New Year celebration at 7 p.m. this Sat., Feb. 18, at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. Tickets range in price from $15 to $30.